Photo by Tristan Tamayo/ INQUIRER.net
Zark’s Burger-Lyceum coach Topex Robinson took full responsibility for the end game miscues that led to his team’s shock 106-107 overtime defeat to Gamboa Coffee Mix-St. Clare on Tuesday in the 2018 PBA D-League Aspirants’ Cup.
“Bad coaching on my end,” he said.
CJ Perez knotted the score at 106 with 9.5 seconds remaining in overtime and kept the Jawbreakers’ flickering chances alive, as they needed one stop to force second overtime
Coffee Lovers forward Aris Dionisio missed a three-pointer on the other end, which was rebounded by Jaycee Marcelino.
However, the diminutive guard called for time with 0.9 seconds remaining, which led to technical foul for Zark’s-Lyceum for calling excessive timeouts.
Dionisio misses! But Jaycee Marcelino calls for timeout! Technical foul on Zark’s-Lyceum for calling excessive timeouts! #PBADLeague pic.twitter.com/uMZu3zvGdy
— Randolph B. Leongson (@RLeongsonINQ) March 13, 2018
Trevis Jackson then stepped on the foul line and cooly drained the go-ahead freebie to give Gamboa-St. Clare the one-point lead.
Marcelino had a chance to redeem himself, but his desperation lay-up just rimmed out as the Jawbreakers suffered their third straight defeat and fell to an even 4-4 card.
Robinson explained that it was his inability to inform his players of the game reset in the waning seconds of the extra period which caused their downfall.
“It pains me to put my players in a position to fail. Again, it was a bad coaching on my end,” he said.
The loss further complicated Zark’s-Lyceum’s chances to make it to the playoffs as it now sits at seventh place, on the outside looking in to the top six which will qualify to the quarterfinals.
The Jawbreakers will now have to sweep their remaining games against Go for Gold, JRU, and Perpetual to have a remote chance to progress to the next round.